The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-27
RAILROAD STORIES.
e Railroad Man Has Some Remarka-
Bile Experience in the Line of Duty.
From the Nero York Sua.

| leg, station agent on the Is. ana H. railrodu
for good many years, and Several things
occurred there which were the talk of the
line, and which you may find interesting
enough to publish. My station was both
insignificant and imI ortant. While 1t was
only hamlet IN population. 1t was rail
road crossing. While every train seemed TO
be in hurry to get away as fast as posi-
BILE, all engines had to take water or coal
and various trains had TO pull in on the long
siding to let various other trains pass.
THE policy of our road was niggardly.
The object was to get everything cheap
! and to work every man to the limit. My
station building was little better than shed
and it was impossible TO get any repairs or
improvements. ! was required to act as
telegraph operator, ticket seller, freight
agent switchman, chore boy, and all else,
and did not have an hour | could call my
own. | had cot in the office, and was on
call during the night Let 'em sound my
call while I was in the deepest sleep and in
side of 20 seconds | was ready to answer. |
| should Lave had first-clais assistant at my
station, but the company would not permit
! Il. | must either do the work alone or get
cut for some one who could and would, and
! so | kept hanging on month after month
and year after year, always thinking about
going. but never making up ny mind to it,
The situation was grave enough to keep
my nerves under a constant strain. Train
dispatching was not the art it is now, and
If regular got behind her time it caused
confusion all along the line.
''One of the queer incidents occurred after
| had had the station about two years. 1t
was in the fall of the year, with a great
deal of nasty weather, and trains were con-
tinually late. The last passenger train on
our road passed me. according to schedule,
at 1920 p. m. The next one passed at 7t20
a. m., and it was supposed the intervening
time belonged to me- Ii the night freight
was on time, and if did not get a call on
the instrument, and if there was no special
on the line, and if a dozen other things did
not occur, | could sleep from | to 8. 1t may
have occurred that my sleep was unbroken
five nights in year. On all other nights
/ was turned out from one to three or four
times. The night freight should reach me
at 12:05--fve minutes after midnight She
never left nor took up car at my station,
leaving that for the day freight, but made
a stop of seven or eight minutes for coal
and water. If there was special on the
line, or if there had been an accident, the
freight might have to side track and wait,
but such a thing was rare.
"As rule, | was always asleep when the
freight came in, but somehow or other
knew of her arrival. | knew of it without
waking p, and next morning could have
told whether she was late OF ,on time.
Twenty eight minutes after her time pas
senger train on the other road made the
crossing. This crossing was eighty rods
above the station, and, while / had
nothing to do with the trains on
the other road, l naturally kept
track of them and knew whether they
were late or on time. On this particu-
lar night I went to bed at 10:45, and was
~
denly awoke. The night freight had not
come in. l had been sound asleep, but
knew she had not. She was fit en- minutes
overdue, and yet my call had not been
sounded. This to ME meant some sort of
accident between me and the next staff IN
north, which was eleven miles away. | at
once called for the station, but the operate r
had gone. l ran to the door and looked out.
There was a tine rain and dense fog.
Freight trains are seldom on schedule
time, and / had known those on our line to
be an hour late without worrying over the
fact. However, on this night | was ali
worry. The rain and the fog, the crossing,
the fact of my waking up as | had, the
failure to raise the agent at the station
above, these things made me terribly I'M
easy, and at 1925 l lighted my lantern, put
on my rubber coat, and started up the line
on a run. had not gone forty rods when |
minutes later | could see the glare of
headlight through the fog. In couple of
minutes more | found our midnight freight
twenty-five cars and a big locomotive
and she was standing directly on the cross
ing of the roads began to shont as soon
as l had made out the locomo i've, but no
one answered me. pushed along the cars,
climbed up, and found the engineer and fire
man on the floor of the tender. arms around
a,n ,AL a,,If ne& oeIa
same moment the passenger train on the
other road whstled for the crossing.
81 am telling you, sir, that lived a year
for every minute in the next five or six.
knew very little about an engine, though
had seen how they were reversed and how
the throttle was worked If anything was
done | must do it, and do it quickly 1t
struck me that l must back up, and flung
over the Der, gave hcr steam, and she be-
gan to move. The steam had run down and
we moved at a snai s pace, and even when
| pulled her wide open, the engine scarcely
had power to back the heavy train. We
did move, however, ALTHOUGH it was
foot by foot. l could hear the
roar of the passenger train, and knew that
every second was fastening a terrible
calamity, but / did not leave the engine
Back! back back we crawled, and of a
sudden a great light flashed III my eyes,
! there was a crash, and | saw stars moving
in front of me and disappearing into the
| darkness. What had happened. Well, !
| had backed the freight until the locomotive
of the passenger train only carried away the
pilot Us it crossed our line That was all
the damage done, and no passenger bad a
suspicion of his narrow escape from an
awful smash-up.
"When the train bad disappeared and ]
could realize the situation, / began to in
vestigate. | ran back to the caboose, but
| no one was to be found | shouted and
screamed, but soon found that | was all
alone. Then, climbing back into the cab, |
sought TO arouse the engineer and his fl e.
man Deads No Drunk as two lords
/ Yes, sir. They were drinking men, though
! the company did not know it. They had
! been taken off another run two weeks
| before, and coming down the line on this
| trip had brought bottle with them AT
the station above they had reached the
limit, and in their drunken deviltry
had suddenly pulled out and left
all the train crew behind. The con
ductor could not readily find the station
agent, and when he did rout him out and yet
him to the Office | was out of mine, and did
not answer his call. The two men had let
the steam so down, and the train had
stopped whe | found it. The men were
by that time too drunk to stand up, and had
| grabbed each other and rolled on the floor
to sleep. | was yet in the cab, trying to
! kick some sense into them, when the con
ductor and his two brakeman arrived on a
hand car, and after getting up steam we